SOME EARLY EXPERIENCES 39 



in a thick mass of bracken, and up got a brace of 

 Woodcock, which I shot with a right and left. 

 Hardly had I reloaded when another pair rose and 

 likewise fell to my gun. I was again reloading 

 and remarking to the head keeper, Keay, upon 

 such a piece of luck, when a fifth bird rose, and 

 fell dead to a long shot. The first four birds were 

 all quick, but comparatively easy shots, but the 

 fifth was long and a smart dodger. Such an 

 unusual incident seldom falls to the lot of any 

 sportsman, for it is extremely rare to find five 

 full-grown Woodcock together and to bag them all. 

 It is by no means common, in England at any 

 rate, to secure a right and left at Woodcock. On 

 two occasions I think I could have performed the 

 double event but for certain reasons. At the back 

 of my house at Horsham there is a small strip of 

 forest which in some seasons is a favourite resort 

 of Woodcock in early winter. Shooting there one 

 day in 1904 with a young friend, I flushed three 

 Woodcocks in succession and killed them all, when 

 a fourth rose and presented an easy shot. In- 

 stead, however, of going forward, this bird turned 

 to the right towards a small open ride where my 

 companion was walking, and, as I knew he had 

 never killed a Woodcock, I left it to him. Alas, 

 he missed it. On another occasion (January 1919) 

 I was shooting with Mr. John Calder at West 

 Weeting, Norfolk, when at one stand I killed a 

 right and left at Woodcock, and then reloaded my 

 gun just in time to get a third that came forward, 

 saw me and " zoomed " upwards in an " Immel- 

 man turn " to my right. At the same moment as 

 I took my eye off this bird, a fourth was seen 



